


to be loved a whole life long

by amusewithaview



Series: fanfiction is a valid love language [1]
Category: Thor (Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, F/F, F/M, Gen, Soulmate-Identifying Marks, Soulmates
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-04
Updated: 2016-03-04
Packaged: 2018-05-24 15:30:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,947
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6158215
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/amusewithaview/pseuds/amusewithaview
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Darcy finds missing pieces of herself on a rooftop and in an abandoned parking lot.</p>
            </blockquote>





	to be loved a whole life long

**Author's Note:**

  * For [stonehan](https://archiveofourown.org/users/stonehan/gifts).



> stonehan25 requested, "Can I please request a soulmate AU for the Marvel Universe where matching soulmarks appear only *after* soulmates have been intimate? Sex would be one way, but also friendship and queerplatonic relationships could cross an undefined line and then boom, marks appear on each person. Multiple marks are common, poly is a social norm, same sex relationships are a given. I don’t want to dictate pairings, any of the pairings in your Marvel fics would be awesome, although I am very fond of Tony."
> 
> Sorry, no Tony in this one - I intended to get there after Jane, but then this took a sharp turn towards the stars, Asgard, and Thor. The big blond just muscled on in. This fic assumes a certain level of familiarity with the Thor movies, as it references both without retreading either.

Three weeks into her internship with Jane Foster, Darcy finally followed the scientist to her roof retreat. “I would just like to point out that I think this is a bad idea,” Darcy said seriously, carefully picking her way up the ladder and through the hatch before heading over to Jane’s lawn chairs. “It’s dark, there’s no actual barrier around the edge of the roof, and we are both short people – it’s a long way to fall.”

Jane scoffed as she fussed with the blanket over her feet. “Your eyes will adjust.”

“Spoken like a true astronomer.” That comment only netted her an eye-roll, Jane was clearly getting used to her particular brand of humor. “So,” Darcy said, settling on the empty chair beside her boss, “this is the roof. It’s very… rooflike.”

“Look _up._ ”

“…okay, I’ll admit, this is kind of cool.” Darcy sighed and wriggled around on her chair till she was comfortable, the creaky sound of plastic moving indicated Jane doing the same. “There sure are a lot of them. Really bright, too. Is that an out-in-the-boonies thing or a desert thing?”

“Bit of both, I think.”

“Hmm.”

Silence fell between the two women, but it wasn’t uncomfortable. Darcy watched the stars, eyes flickering from the constellations she recognized, to the slow drift of lights that were probably planes or satellites, to the brightest stars. Her breathing evened out, deepened, but she felt quite alert.

“My dad used to take me outside on clear nights, nights where you could see _everything_ , and read to me,” Jane said softly. “He read all sorts of things: kids’ books, mythology, sometimes even his research. He was always having to buy new booklights because he’d forget to get batteries for them. We had drawers full of the things, it was ridiculous.”

“My dad was never much of a reader,” Darcy offered. “We didn’t really talk a whole lot, he was pretty quiet.” She smiled wryly, explaining, “Obviously, I take after my mom. But when I was having a rough time of it, we’d go on long drives, just… pick a direction and go for however long it took. Sometimes he’d even let me pick the station.”

Jane ‘hmmed’ in acknowledgement, and they slipped back into silence. The stars were brighter than any Darcy had ever seen, and there was a strange kind of peace to be found in the stillness, one she wasn’t used to but welcomed all the same. It could have felt lonely, sitting out there in silence under the stars, but she could hear Jane breathing beside her, within reach. Between one moment and the next, Darcy fell asleep. The next morning she woke up to Jane poking her in the forehead, a steady _tap-tap-tap_ right between her eyebrows. The instant Darcy opened her eyes, Jane lifted her hand a little, spreading her fingers so that when the younger woman’s eyes finally focused, the very first thing she saw was her palm and fingers. There was a treble clef staff that curved down Jane’s thumb before zigzagging along the lines of her palm and then running up the underside of her ring finger. Instead of musical notes, stars marked the melody and at a glance it wasn’t one Darcy recognized.

She blinked rapidly, then slowly lifted her own left hand. She immediately recognized that different “notes” marked her, and she raised the fingers of her other hand to trace over the black staff and colorful stars.

There was an odd strain on her face, and it took a second for her to register that it was caused by the sheer size of her smile. Her eyes felt warm and she was utterly unsurprised to see that Jane’s own were tear-bright when she looked back up at her. A matching smile was on the scientist’s face and for a moment they just stared at each other, both grinning, wordless, and indescribably _happy_.

“Hey,” Darcy said, voice a little scratchy.

“Good morning,” Jane said.

“The _best_.”

…

Erik, when he came, seemed torn between happiness for Jane and the inherent awkwardness of sharing space with newly-discovered soulmates. It wasn’t as if Jane or Darcy did anything especially private when he was about, but there were moments when Erik felt an overwhelming desire to leave for the nearest alcohol-serving establishment. Small intimacies: their eyes locking when Darcy handed Jane a pen, Jane doctoring Darcy’s coffee, Darcy using Jane’s shirt to clean her glasses, had added weight and depth. Their bond was strong and tooth-achingly sweet, and Erik found himself emailing his own soulmates far more often than was normal for him.

Sophie didn’t respond, unsurprising since last he’d heard from her she was off on an adventure to “find” herself.

Victoria, predictably, laughed at him. Then told him she would send him vodka.

Nicholas was slightly more sympathetic, and gave better advice. “Standard protocol says soulmates on the force together are either to be separated to different departments or partnered permanently, depending on the nature of their bond. The ones who are partnered…” he coughed. “Well, in London they were usually sent off for extra certifications to get them out of everyone’s hair till they settled. When Danny and I, ah, well – they took us out for congratulatory drinks, got us ragingly drunk, and then informed us we were on permanent patrol duty together for the next six months.”

Since isolation was impossible, Erik focused on the work, with moderate success.

Then Thor arrived.

…

Jane and Darcy stood hand-in-hand, watching the sky as something bright and beautiful bloomed, then slowly died away into nothing. It felt like an ending, but of what, Darcy couldn’t say.

“Do you think he’s all right?” she asked.

“He survived getting hit by the van – "

“Twice.”

“ – tasered, and that robot… thing – " 

“There were jackboot thugs in there somewhere, too,” Darcy muttered.

“ – I… I believe in him,” Jane said hesitantly. Then, more firmly, “I _believe_ him. He’ll come back. We’ll see him again.”

Darcy nodded silently. They hadn’t bonded, there was no mark to show for their time spent with the big blond, but there had been _something_. A pull she couldn’t quite describe, something she’d never felt before. _Do aliens have soulmates?_ Jane had felt it too, it was obvious in the way she leaned into him, in the way he made her cheeks flush. Thor watched them both with something soft in his eyes and he let Darcy catch him at it too often for it to be something simple, something picked up in their presence and put down as soon as he left.

“We’ll see him again,” Darcy agreed.

…

There was a circle of no rain and that was _wrong_ and Jane had been gone for _hours_ but now she was back but there was something – something behind her eyes that tinged them _red_. Her skin was too hot, her hands were almost twitching where they were clutched in Darcy’s, as if she’d been holding hot coffee seconds before. But she hadn’t, Darcy knew that, because for hours Jane had been _gone_ and look though she might, Darcy _couldn’t find her_.

There was a smoking wreck of a car behind them, struck by the energy that had arched out of Jane’s body not five minutes before. Thor - _Thor!_ \- stood beside them, watching them intently and that pull… the pull was still there, stronger than the last time. Darcy was bone dry, though she was standing in the rain, and more scared than she’d ever been in her life because she was watching the dance of stars on a treble clef staff pulse in time with Jane’s heartbeat, too fast, hummingbird fast, and with every beat those stars seemed to _fade_ just a little, right before her eyes.

“Something _happened_ ,” Darcy said, distantly surprised by how even her voice was.

Jane bit her lip, looking shamefaced. “I walked into one of those _things_ and it took me to a big chamber and there was an obelisk. I, um, went to investigate it when it caught my attention and something sort of _jumped_ out of it at me and then… I think it’s _inside_ me.”

Darcy shut her eyes, a groan dragging itself out of her throat. “You touched the thing,” she said flatly. “The _ominous_ thing in the _chamber_ accessible only by _breaking the rules of physics!_ ”

“…it was glowing red, too.”

“ _Oh my god, Jane!_ ” Her voice was just shy of a shriek but she didn’t care, “Have you learned nothing from our marathons?!”

“I’m _sorry,_ ” she said, fingers tightening around Darcy’s. Her eyes dropped to the pulsing mark, then widened. She went white with shock, swaying on her feet. "Oh god, Darcy… I'm so sorry," she sniffled.

She pulled the scientist into her arms, tucking the slightly shorter woman's head against her neck and holding her tight while she trembled. She looked to Thor over Jane's shoulder, finally addressing him. “You’re here, now, after – " she stopped, took a deep breath. “This isn’t a coincidence,” she said. “You’re not here for us – " it looked like he wanted to make some sort of objection, but he refrained from interrupting, "you’re here because of _this_ ," she said, gesturing at the abandoned warehouse with the floating boat and invisible portals to who-knew-where. "Broken physics or whatever. I don’t care what it is, I don’t care what’s going on. I need to fix Jane. Can you help me?”

“Darcy…”

“Aye,” Thor said. He took a step towards them, and even without trying he positively _loomed_ over both of them. “I can and I will." Somehow he could make a single sentence sound like a vow. "All that can be done will be done, but I must take her to Asgard.”

“Asgard?”

He nodded, and there was something in the set of his shoulders that seemed tense. He was poised for action, waiting on her words, watching her like a hawk. It was unnerving, and she knew that he was asking for more than permission to take Jane, her _soulmate_ , and go.

"I can't come with you?"

Jane stiffened in her arms, hands clutching convulsively on the back of Darcy's coat.

He hesitated, "Asgard would welcome you, but there are… customs to be followed, protocols I will already be breaking by bringing Jane with me. To further break with tradition would draw scrutiny and might slow the search for answers."

"Bureaucracy is the scourge of every realm," Darcy said solemnly.

"Someday you will visit Asgard and match wits with the brightest of the court," he said, and again it had the ring of a vow.

Darcy studied him. She’d only known him a scant handful of days. She’d watched him save a town, then save the world a few years later. He was big and bright and it would be so easy to trust him, she just had to let go, give in to the pull that had existed between them from the word ‘go.’ She knew she was going to say yes, there was no other real choice, not when Jane was on the line, but there was a difference between agreeing and –

“All right,” she said, and she felt that slight resistance melt into nothing as she continued: “I trust you.”

…

(Color spread down her shoulder, beneath her shirt, tracing her ribs to her hip in smooth lines and graceful swirls. Beneath his armor, a similar image painted itself onto Thor's skin. A picture that told a story he would teach her to read, just as Darcy would play him the song she shared with Jane, and Jane would - eventually – take them to every place marked on the nine-branched map that she shared with Thor.)

**Author's Note:**

> 1\. Up to you who's platonic and who's romantic.
> 
> 2\. Erik's soulmates are Sophie from Leverage, Victoria from Red, and Nick Angel from Hot Fuzz.
> 
> 3\. The reason it would break with tradition for Thor to bring Darcy and Jane to Asgard even though he _knows_ they're his soulmates is because they haven't actually had their moment yet. The ability to sense a potential soulmate is uniquely Asgardian, and usually kicks off their courting traditions. The only reason Thor gets away with bringing Jane - a _Midgardian_ \- (kind of gets away with it, there's still tension) is because she's dying. Most of this tradition is due to the martial history of Asgard vs. the other realms. An unmarked soulmate still doesn't trust you, and therefore might be a danger. Or something to that effect.


End file.
